A Peculiar People 
The Red River Half breeds—A Vanished Camp— 
The Cheerful Buffalo Hunters of 
Fifty Years Ago 
By G. B. G. 
D URING the middle of the last century 
there lived on the plains of the North¬ 
west, between the Red River of the 
North and the Rocky 'Mountains, an exceed¬ 
ingly interesting group of people—the Red River 
halfbreeds. Although they existed there as a 
community for only about two generations, yet 
during this time they were so distinct a people 
as to impress themselves on the minds of all who 
met with them, and to have made a name that 
will never be forgotten when the history of the 
Northwest is referred to. 
Scattered about as individuals or families, the 
Red River halfbreeds were inconspicuous and of 
no importance. By the more staid and methodi¬ 
cal people of Anglo-Saxon blood they were- 
thought of with more or less contempt by rea¬ 
son of their volatile nature and their disinclina¬ 
tion for settled habits. But gathered together in 
a great camp moving toward the buffalo, or in 
the buffalo country, they were impressive be¬ 
cause as a community they were unlike any of 
the great camps. of the people whose blood 
flowed in their veins. In some degree they pos¬ 
sessed the caution and foresightedness of their 
Caucasian ancestors, but with this was united 
the keenness of observation, the knowledge of 
the habits of animals and generally of the pro¬ 
cesses of nature which they inherited from their 
savage mothers. 
Little more than half a century witnessed the 
beginnings and the ending of the great halfbreed 
camp, but during the short time that they were, 
or seemed to be, a people or tribe by themselves, 
they were well worth studying. They were 
friendly and kindly in their nature, usually on 
good terms with white travelers and Indians 
alike, though to be sure occasionally attempts 
at horse stealing by the Indians resulted in a 
collision with those people, but this was unusual. 
Yet it is stated that once they were attacked 
in the summer of 1851 by 1,000 Yankton Sioux, 
when, after a long fight behind their breastworks, 
the halfbreeds beat off the Indians. 
The Red River halfbreeds were more or less 
nomadic, dwelling at least for a part of the 
year in tents, and in many respects living much 
like the Indians whose blood they shared. The 
children of employes of the Hudson’s Bay Com¬ 
pany by Indian mothers, two classes were recog¬ 
nized: the French halfbreeds and the English 
halfbreeds. Their Celtic blood often hurried 
the French section into acts hostile to the Gov¬ 
ernment, or to the fur company, and in some 
cases led to actual rebellion. The last of these 
outbreaks took place in 1883 and was partici¬ 
pated in by a number of simple Indians over 
whom the halfbreeds had much influence. Fol- 
RED RIVER CART 
Of Wood and Rawhide, without Iron. 
lowing the putting down of this, which from its 
leader was called the second Riel rebellion, Riel 
was hanged, as were also some of the Indians. 
Each spring the French halfbreeds gathered 
at the fort—Fort Garry—for their long journey 
to the plains, where they killed great numbers 
of buffalo, drying the meat and making pemmi- 
can for sale and for winter subsistence, and the 
women dressing the hides, which were sold to 
the Hudson’s Bay Company. The company gave 
these people long credit, and Ross in his descrip¬ 
tion of the Red River settlement draws a gloomy 
picture of the economic situation there, as the 
time for the summer buffalo hunt approached. 
He says: 
‘‘With the earliest dawn of spring the hunters 
are in motion like bees, and the colony in a state 
of confusion from their going to and fro, in 
order to raise the wind and prepare themselves 
for the fascinating enjoyments of hunting. It 
is now that the company, the farmers, the petty 
traders, are all beset by their incessant and irre¬ 
sistible importunities. The plain mania brings 
everything to a stand. One wants a horse, an¬ 
other an axe, a third a cart; they want ammu¬ 
nition, they want clothing, they want provisions; 
and though people may refuse one or two, they 
cannot deny a whole population, f.or indeed over¬ 
much obstinacy would not be unattended with 
risk. * * * 
“The plain-hunters, finding they can get what¬ 
ever they want without ready money, are led 
into ruinous extravagances, but the evil of the 
long credit system does not end here. It is now 
deeply rooted and infused into all the affairs 
and transactions of the place. Nor, indeed, is 
this the worst. The baneful influence of these 
wild and licentious expeditions over the minds 
and morals of the people is so uncontrollable 
that it unhinges all their ideas and draws into 
its illusive train not only the hunters, but al¬ 
most every class of our population. So many 
temptations, so many attractions are held out 
to the thoughtless and giddy, so fascinating is 
the sweet air of freedom, that even the off¬ 
spring of Europeans, as well as natives, are 
often induced to cast off their habits of industry 
and leave their comfortable homes to try their 
fortunes in the plains. There, however, disap¬ 
pointment and ruin never fail to convince them 
of their error and dearly at last do they repent 
their folly. 
“The practical result of all this may be stated 
in few words. After the expedition starts there 
is not a man servant or maid servant to be found 
in the colony. At any season but seed time and 
harvest time, the settlement is literally swarm¬ 
ing with idlers, but at these urgent periods money 
cannot procure them.” 
The cost of one of these hunting trips in which’ 
fifteen or sixteen hundred people took part was 
great—not less than £24,000 or $120,000. The 
growth in popularity of the annual hunt was 
rapid. In 1820—the first trip—it numbered 540 
carts, while in 1840 it numbered 1210. The hun¬ 
ters were for the most part Roman Catholics and 
were governed by strict rules, being controlled 
by chiefs or captains who w r ere duly elected, 
The hunting grounds of the Red River half- 
breeds extended from the Saskatchewan on the 
north, southward sometimes as far as the Yel¬ 
lowstone River. They followed the buffalo 
wherever they were, and with them took their 
whole families and all their worldly possessions, 
transported in the famous Red River carts. 
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